West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-05-13

the preservation OF their politicai
franchises. where shall they look for
safety? Can they trust the Repnbli-
can party, with its loose and danger,
ous theories of consolidation ana
government supremacy ov,r all the
affairs of its citizens? That party
has thoroughly demonstrated its IN
capacity to govern free people IN
time of peace, and it must 60 the
way of its Federal progenitor.
Gentlemen, it is not by any means
a singular fact that strong feeling
of sympathy should exist between
those who want 4 paternal Govern
ment and those WHO want no Gov
ernment-between those who want
the Government to do everything
and those who want it 70 do moth
ing. While one faction advocates
governmental interference in all the
affairs of the people, another faction
opposes governmental interference
for any purpose, even to preserve the
peace and protect the rights of prop
erty: and yet their reasoning, in the
abstract, is substantially the same.
and if followed to its logical conclu-
sion would produce substantially the
same result. The man who believes
that it is the right and duty Of the
Government to take the earnings of
one citizen, by taxation or other
wise, and give them to another, diff
fers very little from the man who
denies the right of property alto
gether. If the Government may
rightfully compel you by law to give
any part Of the proceeds of your la
Dor or your skill to another man.
why may it not, with equal right,
compel You to give him your horse
or your land. The fact that this is
done indirectly, and under the guise
of taxation, does not in the slightest
degree affect the question of right
or wrong involved in the transac-
ton, but it greatly increases the
danger to the people, because they
are less likely TO detect and resist
the spoliatlon when it is committed
through this insidious process. 1t
is not the manner in which you are
despoiled, but the fact that you are
despoiled, that constitutes the
wrong. And if the Government
may rightfully collect money by
taxation and then donate it as a
bounty or subsidy to individuals or
corporations engaged iii particular
industries or particular commercial
enterprises. in oder To make their
private business profitable, why may
it not also collect it and distribute
it among particular classes Of the
people, in order to equalize their
fortunes, and thus accomplish all
that socialism and communism are
demanding? The advocates of taxa
ton for the purpose of increasing
the profits of one individual at the
expense of another, the advocates OF
bounties and subsidies, and the adj
vocates of paternal government gen
orally, cannot halt in the middle OF
their arguments and refuse torecog-
nizc the legitimate and inevitable
results of their own doctrines. They
must know-and they do know
that when they have proved their
own right, by the use Of the power
of the Government or otherwise, to
take the money or property of 9th
ers and appropriate it to themselves
they have also proved the right of
all others to take their money and
property in the same way; and thus
the right of private ownership is
made to depend entirely upon the
numerical strength of the two sides.
There is so little difference in
principle and in practical results
between paternal government and
mob government thatit is not worth
while to express preference for one
over the other. We must oppose
both, or we must abandon all that
our party has contended for in the
past, and relinquish all it has hoped
for in the future. No, gentlemen, if
this country is to continue free and
peaceful and prosperous, we must
not bow down before any of the po-
liticai idols recently set up among
us. We must continue to walk in
the old paths and hold on to the
true faith. The right of local self
government must be scrupulously
maintained; the General Govern
ment must be confined strictly to
the powers delegated to il in the
Constitution, and the several States
must protect the rights of person
and property within their respective
Jurisdictions. Each individual citi-
zen must be left free to conduct his
own private business in his own way,
to make his own contracts, and dis
pose Of his own earnings without in
reference by the Government or any
one else; the law must be enforced
and order maintained under all cir
cnmstances: socialism, communism,
anarchism and all their kindred so.
cial and political heresies must be
opposed, if necessary, by the COM
bined conservative forces Of the
country: the revolutionary doc
trines and methods imported from
the hotbeds of incendiarism in con-
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